Jail threat as tragedy fall driver convicted

A market trader was today warned he faced jail after a jury decided his dangerous driving caused the death of a Walsall woman who fell from his moving van.

Mohammed Asghar, aged 24, stood stone faced in the dock but relatives of victim Lisa Collins burst into tears when the verdict was returned at Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon following a four day trial.

The jury took five hours to reach their majority verdict after which Judge John Warner adjourned the case until March 24 for reports.

He bailed Asghar from Soho Road, Handsworth, but warned: "This does not affect in any way the way that I will deal with you. You must know what the almost inevitable sentence will be."

Miss Collins, aged 25, from Brownhills fell to her death on the exit from the M5 at Oldbury moments after making a frantic 999 call to police claiming that the driver of the van would not let her out of the vehicle.

Asghar had picked up the prostitute in Caldmore and feared that she had stolen hundreds of pounds from the pocket of his trousers as they drove along the M5 at 2.30am on April 18 last year.

He pulled off the motorway at Oldbury intending to stop but Miss Collins fell from the van at a roundabout at the bottom of the M5 sliproad.